Farm management companies must accurately track all direct crop expenses so that they can bill these expenses to each grower. The Farm Management Billing option provides the "glue" that connects the Cost Accounting system with Accounts Receivable. Expenses recorded in the Cost Accounting system are compiled, marked up for billing if applicable, and billed to the growers. Features of the Farm Management Billing system include:

• Each cost center may be assigned to a customer account. Cost centers that are not managed (e.g. part of your own operation) do not need to be assigned to a customer.

• Billing amounts are automatically calculated from the totals in the cost accounting system.

• Labor expenses may be billed at a higher rate than paid to employee by using the Pay Rate file to specify a billing rate for each job.

• Payroll overhead (taxes/worker’s comp) can be expensed by cost center in the payroll and passed on to customer automatically. Payroll overhead can also be calculated as a percentage of wages and passed on to customer automatically. Or if you are using the billing rate in the Payroll file, this rate may include your payroll overhead.

• Four automatic markup methods available for charging chemicals to customers. The chemical file maintains a weighted average cost for each chemical. The first method will charge a percentage markup based on this average cost. The second method simply adds a flat amount to the chemical’s average cost. The third method charges a flat rate per unit used regardless of the cost. The fourth method charges a specific rate per acre treated. (Chemical expenses must be recorded through Pesticide Application Entry.)

• The cost accounting system can track equipment usage and automatically create expenses for each cost center for the use of equipment based on a per hour chargeout rate. This expense can be passed on to the customer as-is, or a separate billing rate can be set for each equipment for billing to the customer. Different billing rates for different jobs can be entered.

• All other expenses from cost accounting are passed through to the customer. The expense amounts may be adjusted before printing a final invoice.

• Invoices may be printed in one of three formats: a detail format lists all line items billed to the customer (not completed yet), a MTD/YTD format with per acre costs (see the next page), and a MTD/YTD/Budget format with per acre costs (not completed yet). A separate page is printed for each cost center.

• Once a crop management invoice is finalized, it enters the accounts receivable system where it will appear on aging reports, customer statements and inquiries, and cash receipts may be posted to it.

• Separate income categories may be set up for different phases.

• Using overhead cost centers, the system can automatically split a bill between two different customer accounts (for instance, billing two partners separately) according to a predefined percentage.

• Overhead cost centers can also be used to automatically produce a summary page grouping several cost centers together.  For instance, if you manage several ranches for a grower, and there are different varieties on each ranch, you can produce a billing statement itemizing each variety on each ranch as well as summaries for ranch.